A friend of mine is being monitored by her dad.
He gets all cell phone text messages (SMS) which she sends and recieves.
To top it of he knows every word said in IM conversations.
Legally, he has the right to do so. My question is: what can be behind the logging of those IM chats and possibly more? I know of keyloggers, but I am no expert in the field. Furthermore I know a computer can remember the last 50,000 or so lines one has typed, but I think it’s not practical for one person to decipher all of that.
Can you tell me about possible things which allow her dad to monitor her internet activities and how to put a stop to it or at least filter out very private things?
Thanks in advance guys! You’re not doing me a favor, but my friend Alexander.
who bought her the phone, if it was her dade, then TOUGH - deal with it =)
On the other hand… if she bought it herself… then DOUBLE TOUGH - its her dad, and he’s trying to protect her from the big scary world out there… also, he pays for the room and board so he’s got rank
First of all, your story gives me the creeps. I can imagine a parent monitoring what you do on the net but going all the way to reading your IM and internet activities, that’s pretty crazy. Some sort of Control-freak or something. Even if it’s legal, it’s sort of abusing of your rights. Now this depends on how old your friend is too.
keyloggers would not be practical to monitor computer activities though. There might be regular screenshot taking program to see what pops on the screen say every 5 seconds but that might not even be practical.
I think the best solution is for her to talk it with her dad and work around this Trust problem. Because that’s what’s its all about. Her dad doesn trust her.
And as said above. It depends on who pays for what.
Well she (I know, Alexander is more of a guy name) is 16 years old (which is the age of consent over here). There were also some problem with a divorce which took a while between her parents where her dad monitored the chatting of her mom. That way he could prove she had been chatting and planning stuff with the guy Alex’ mother is with now.
She’s changed computers by now, but her dad probably installed whatever he uses on the new pc as well. I don’t know what it is Alex’ dad is using to monitor her, but it isn’t a simple keylogger since it can give entire IM conversations (including what the other said, complete with dates and times in a .txt format; Alex has seen the print-outs of these reports so she knows how they look like).
Does anyone have even the slightest idea as to what to do? I know some of these programs/hardware are impossible to do anything against… but any help would be appreciated.
I don’t know about the laws in Belgium, but in America parents have the right to monitor their kids. We’re all second rate citizens… The laws pretty much get bent out of our favor whenever our guardian wants until we turn 18. After that, it becomes illegal.
Okay, onto the subject of keyloggers. They don’t need to be deciphered, at least by the person that installed the keylogger. The computer does all the deciphering for you. I find that keyloggers are very easy to get by. Just press ctr+alt+delete. Click the processes tab (this is for windows xp, by the way.). Find the name of the keylogger program on the list. Mine, for instance, is defenderprokey.exe. As you can see it’s very obvious. You might not be so lucky. Don’t worry about disabling every program on the list- this will not do any damage to your computer. Every change that you make will be reversed next time the computer is turned on.
Okay, and now for the permanant version. You’ll probably need a password cracker for this. If this is your standard keylogger software, it’ll probably have an icon in the lower right tray on your screen. If the software is really tricky you’ll have to press a combination of keys of the keyboard to bring up the password dialogue (i.e. ctr+e). Double click the icon/find the key combo to bring up the dialogue. At this point you will need a password cracker. You can get one off of google easily. It works by trying every possible combination of keys into the password box. If you manage to get it cracked, you’ll be able to change the settings easily.
Hope I helped.
-Alden
*EDIT: I just read your previous post. If your dad is monitoring your mom without her permission or knowledge, there could be legal trouble.
I feel ya, Alden.
In Belgium the law is like this: children (under 18) have a right for privacy BUT parents have the right to monitor us.
You’ve been a great help! I’ve learned something today
But there’s still one thing puzzling me: is it possible to find the log of the keylogger to delete part of the log?
I know, Alex has been naughty and she found out too late her dad’s monitoring her. If she erases the entire log, her dad’ll know something’s wrong but if she deletes just the part she doesn’t want her dad to know, she can get away with it.
Well this underhanded - but if your freind has an administrator account (or the password to her dad’s account) then she could in theory remove whatever monitoring software her dad has. Better yet, find out what it is and delete the folder that the program it’s in - that way it stays in the registry even though it won’t work.
As for the phone problem, she can remove the SIM card and get a new one, a new card, new number, Daddy is just going to have to deal with it. Her SIM card, her rules - just make sure that Daddy doesn’t get at it.
Using proxy-servers (the free kind) mask you IP from people monitoring, this may help if your friend wishes to get at sites that Daddy would otherwise would not like her to see. A good example is www.anonyproxy.com or www.razorthought.com (which has a proxy server).
Another way is to try and find out where these .txt files are - and to delete them (or maybe even change them - wink wink).
Of course - a talk with her Dad would be a fair more better solution - he obviously has a control problem. Fine, he has the right to monitor her - BUT WITHIN REASON - monitoring her conversations is NOT within reason. If your freind wants to have confidential conversations with her peers or mother, and Daddy is still monitoring then I suggest a code of sorts - a bit far fetched, but it’s worth it if she can speak freely without fear of reprocussions.
Hope this helps.
Glad I helped. I’ve gone through a similar process with my parents monitoring what I do on the computer. It didn’t last long, and you could probably guess why… haha.
But there’s still one thing puzzling me: is it possible to find the log of the keylogger to delete part of the log?
It all depends on what program is being used to monitor the computer. I use the software Defender Pro, which allows you to delete information by hand (I use this on the computer in my room, by the way, not the family computer. My sister used to do some disturbing things with my computer so I began monitoring it.) If you can find out what the program is called I can do a little research on it online. Or you could as well. All it takes is a google search.
Roffrey is right- this is another way to do it. Especially on the part about deleting the folder.
One thing I forgot to mention is that the logger could be part of your friend’s anti virus software. If your friend totally run out of options, you can delete the antivirus package. This should be a last resort, since you can’t be too sure if the keylogger is integrated with it. If it takes a password to change the settings in the antivirus package, than it’s more likely.
The folder is almost always found in C:\Program Files. They typically have very obvious names (SpyTracker, Logger…). Just make sure you don’t delete anything important.
EDIT:
Tell her to try downloading an alternative IM program such as Trillian.
This might not work. What if the keylogger monitors everything that gets typed on the computer and not just IM?
a couple of questions need to be answered first: is her dad crazy? does he have reason to be monitoring her? is 16 a legal adult over there? who bought the phone? do they not get along? does she have fond memories of childhood pets?
Sounds like her dad is hanging onto the last woman in his life since he’s divorced from his wife, his daughter is a replacment. In that case it’s really creepy and her dad is a psycho.
well sumthin similiar is happening to me…my dad wants to noe wat i talk bout on msn and im…and what sites i go to…simple…i delete the history…i have software which deletes everything used on the internet browser…i have my own log in which no one noes of…and i use trillian and mozilla which comes from my usb u3 drive…simple…check it out.
Now hold your horses kids… Sheesh, you don’t even know her dad’s side of the story, let alone hers… just what Charles is saying… There may be far more to this whole thing than meets the eye. Now I don’t know you Charlesworth, so please don’t be offended, but you have not made things all that clear for me. You see people, it could be a 13 year old girl that cw has met on the net who is telling him she is 16. If this was the case (and of course I am not saying it is) then her dad may be doing the exact right thing. You never know.
Even if this unlikely scenario is not the right one, I think it is unlikely that the young girl bought the PC with money she has earned and also equally unlikely that she pays the internet connection bill. I’m guessing her dad paid for both.
Maybe, if you know her in person, you could speak to her dad like adults and ask him his reasons… Post them up, we’ll blend together a whole episode of ‘Opera’ or ‘Springer’ for them. If not, maybe your better off considering your options and keeping your chats with Alex clean ?
Just playing the devils advocate
J
The obligatory use-linux-instead solution, too. Even if there is keylogger software available for Linux, I’m willing to bet that Pop wouldn’t know how to install it. (Even if she didn’t want to install Linux, she could conceivably do internet stuff through Knoppix.)
You know that most chat programs have text logs of the conversations with times and such? Right now I can pull up anything I’ve ever said on AIM or Trillian. Its in the chat programs folders on the C drive usually. He may not be spying at all. Just grabbing logs and reading them lol. Though the cell phone thing is odd too.
When are you people going to understand that there is no freedom in the world? BWA!
HA!
There are tracking devices inside of every dollar bill anyway, those “vaccine” shot you took as a child where really radioactive isotypes that the governemnt uses to test the effects of nuclear weapons in war - we are they’re guinnea pigs - let daddy watch his little girl - no big deal…
Roffey, I understand that her talking to her dad about it could lead to a solution, but she’s too scared to and I can’t force her to. Nor can I talk to her dad myself as that would not only embarrass Alex (as in she told me several not-so-positive things about her dad and told me what’s going on at her place).
Alden, If there’s no log or no option to delete part of it, then Alex has a problem. Legally she’s allowed to do stuff with her boyfriend, right? But she told a friend of hers over an IM conversation and found out 3 hours afterwards her dad was still checking whatever she did on the pc.
I can assure you, julesd-g6, that I know the girl in person. Then again there’s no way for you guys to check if I’m right or wrong, but thanks for pointing that out
trak wrecka and plantperson, again, the damage is done so I want to know how to erase it now. Besides, a girl like her doesn’t even know there are other choices besides Windows… she doesn’t even know what ctrl+alt+del is for except shutting down the computer. Using portable apps has given me an idea, though… devilish grin
Jason, he can’t seeing as Alex deletes the .txt logs the IM makes. Btw, why does an IM make chat logs even though you explicitly state you don’t want that? At least Windows Live messengers does…
Glad I helped. I’ve gone through a similar process with my parents monitoring what I do on the computer. It didn’t last long, and you could probably guess why… haha.